NBA player with Hearing Loss (The Lance Allred story)

Despite facing multiple challenges, including hearing loss and bullying, Lance Allred managed to play in the NBA and built a successful career as a motivational speaker and author. His journey exemplifies qualities such as leadership, grit, and perseverance that have defined his life beyond basketball.

There is no doubt that having hearing loss while playing basketball has many disadvantages, especially if you are one who plays team defense as communication is one of the key things you have to do when it comes to helping out your teammates.

It can also sometimes help to talk to each other and communicate on offense. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to compete on a high level and play in the NBA.  After all, Lance Allred did it and here is his story.

The Lance Allred Story

While Lance Allred may have only played three games in the National Basketball Association for his career along with about several years internationally, basketball has set him up for being a lifetime motivational speaker and author, which is also symbolic for the first part of his life as it’s something which basketball has saved at the age of 13.  Although, when you talk to Allred he doesn’t seem to want to talk much about what he has accomplished on the court.

While on the outside it appeared Allred had little hope for success – he was born with 75-80 percent hearing loss, had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and also was born with RH complications – an incident which can occur when the baby’s blood and the mother’s blood doesn’t match.

He was also born into polygamy as one of five children and was raised Mormon until the age of 13 when he discovered basketball, something which he excelled at, especially after he hit a massive growth spurt, where he went from 5’10 to 6’4 in one year and sprouted up to 6’11 by the time it was time for him to go to college where Utah coach Rick Majerus decided to give him a shot.

Allred went to East Lake High School in Salt Lake City, Utah where he barely missed recording a double-double for his high school career at 17.3 points and 9.8 rebounds.

Allred scored the one point in his NBA career on March 17, 2008, and was released during the 2008-2009 season but that doesn’t mean he didn’t enjoy some success on the international stage and in the D league, one of the semi-professional leagues which NBA teams will somehow draw from if they don’t go to the draft for rookies.

Because of his issues, it wasn’t rare for Allred to experience bullying, something which he experienced up till at least his sophomore year of college when he played basketball at the University of Utah under Majerus, who at one point, compared him to cripples. When that happened Allred decided it was time for a change so he transferred to Weber State, another college down the road in Utah where he averaged about nine points and six rebounds a game.

While Allred did not do much in the NBA he has authored and been a motivational speaker in places that are highly influential such as the FBI – yes the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He now lives his life preaching the qualities of leadership, grit, and perseverance.

The books that Allred has written are the Pesaro Poems, Longshot, Basketball Gods, What is your Polygamy, and The New Alpa Male. As for Allred’s basketball career, while he only played one game of NBA basketball he played some overseas and also played for the Idaho Stampede, a semipro team in the D league.

During 2006 he played some in France and also in Spain but didn’t exactly break the bank statistically, never averaging more than 5.5 points per game, but when he went to Spain, his career picked up a little bit but that was due to muscle he gained in the offseason where his weight went up 30 pounds and crossed the double-digit plateau and this was what set him up for a potential NBA career.

Before coming to the Cavaliers, besides playing internationally, Allred also took stop in the D league where he played for the Idaho Stampede where he averaged 16.2 points and 10 rebounds a game and won the D League’s annual game of HORSE in 2010.

Over the next five years from that time Allred played for various international teams before he started what his actual legacy in his life will be, where he started his own business in L Squared productions.

Now it’s time to find out what will change his life next.

Note: All general information about his career came from https://itsbiography.com/Lance-Allred/.

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